House immigration group loses more Republicans

Two House Republicans who had been trying to craft a comprehensive immigration package said Friday they were dropping out of bipartisan negotiations.

In a joint statement, Texas Republican Reps. John Carter and Sam Johnson said that they had “reached a tipping point” in the talks and “can no longer continue” working on a “broad approach” to a rewrite of the nation’s immigration laws.

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“We want to be clear. The problem is politics,” they said in a joint statement. “Instead of doing what’s right for America, President Obama time and again has unilaterally disregarded the U.S. Constitution, the letter of the law and bypassed the Congress – the body most representative of the people - in order to advance his political agenda.”

“We will not tolerate it. Laws passed by Congress are not merely suggestions, regardless of the current atmosphere in Washington. Laws are to be respected and followed by all – particularly by the commander-in-chief.

Their exit is a major blow to immigration reform efforts in the House but the so-called Gang of Seven have long struggled to release legislation. Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) dropped out in June over a health care dispute. The only Republican member that remains is Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, but this essentially marks the disbanding of the group — which has worked off and on for four years to write a comprehensive reform bill.

“Yes, this is it for this group,” a Democratic aide said.

Word began to circulate on Capitol Hill early last week that the two Republicans were planning on leaving the group. Though the Texas Republicans broadly blamed the Obama administration in their public statement, the lawmakers had also faced considerable backlash from the public back in the Lone Star state during the August recess, according to a GOP source.

The Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a conservative anti-illegal immigration group, had revoked their endorsements of Carter and Johnson, according to the Dallas Morning News.

And aides said the group’s members had not met to formally continue its immigration negotiations once Congress returned to Washington for the August recess.

Johnson and Carter declined to criticize their Democratic negotiators — John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Xavier Becerra of California, Zoe Lofgren of California and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois. Instead, their aimed their complaints toward President Barack Obama.

“If past actions are the best indicators of future behavior, we know that any measure depending on the president’s enforcement will not be faithfully executed,” they said.

Johnson and Carter said they will “support efforts” from the GOP-led House on immigration reform. Two committees have passed five separate pieces of legislation overhauling different parts of the U.S. immigration system, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said at a GOP-sponsored forum Thursday that four more bills were in the works for his panel.

”That means immigration reform that starts with a genuinely secure border, full implementation of E-verify, effective enforcement of current and future laws, and a commitment that any proposal contributes to a healthy economy,” Johnson and Carter said. “There is a way to fix this problem that will instill the authentic accountability that has been missing in immigration for the past 25 years. The American people deserve no less.”

Lawmakers have said a bill was essentially completed for some time. Lofgren said in a statement Friday afternoon that “these efforts, or portions of them,” could become a part of the immigration reform process on Capitol Hill.